Ethics of riding in gravel?

[MRH5028]

My first Cyclocross season is about to start, first race is on September 9th, so I just put my CX tires onto my bike instead of my road tires and I was thinking of testing them out on the gravel/dirt trails that boarder parts of the W&OD trail. I rarely see people using these trails, and when I do it is the occasional runner. Is it OK for a bike to use these side trails, or is it frowned upon? I wouldn’t use them for the whole length of my ride, just pop over now and again for a change of terrain. I would of course be extra courteous to runners given the slim width of the trail.

[GuyContinental]

I ride all of the major horse trails, particularly along the Vienna/Hunter Mills section routinely on my CX (but not the narrow side-of-trail-trails). I’ve never had anyone so much as look at me askance, particularly since they were the trail detour for so long. Just be careful entering/exiting the trails as some of them require crossing the flow of traffic.

Normal rules of dirt apply- yield to everyone, stop cold for horses and don’t ride them muddy.

If you are already in that section and want to put your handling skills to the test and avoid pretty much all people, jet up the DR trail to Colvin Run and into LFP.

[Tim Kelley]

Some reading for you.

http://vienna.patch.com/articles/vienna-pedaler-what-are-the-rules-of-unpaved-w-od-trails

[MRH5028]

Tim, that is exactly the info I needed. Thanks.

I used to do some mountain bike riding on mixed use horse/MTB trails in PA so the practice of getting off the bike to let them pass etc is well ingrained into my head.

[Author]

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